The Canadian 7-a-side soccer team trained last week with their American counterparts at the US Olympic Training Centre in Chula Vista, California; an amazing training facility that is located in San Diego area.
During seven days of training and competing, the twelve members of the team have had the opportunity to evaluate their progress since playing their fist ever game at the 2005 CP-ISRA World Championships last summer. Three new players have joined the solid core of players and the coaches are expecting great outcomes from this new group dynamic.
In their first day of scrimmage on Tuesday, the Canadians faced the Americans in three 30 minute games. They lost the first game 1-0, the second 3-0 and tied the third one 0-0. This is a great improvement from their 6-0 lost against their neighbor to the south a year ago.
Young Matt Brown of Peterborough made a big difference on the pitch. He joined the team this summer and has played competitive soccer in Eastern Ontario since a young age. The second 30 minutes was a bit more difficult as the Canadians were tired and more prone to mistakes. A lot of changes were made on both teams for the third game: it was a defensive affair and nobody was able to score, the games finished in a 0-0 tie.
In their final day of training and games, the team finished off their trip with promising results. The head coach, Drew Ferguson, was happy with their overall performance, in spite of their finals scores of 1-0, 2-0, 1-0. “The team worked really hard and with new additions to the team we were able to protect our net better while putting a lot of pressure on theirs. We had some great goal opportunities in Friday’s games, but the U.S. keeper was particularly strong that day. We have lots to work on, but have come a long way since 2005” he commented.
